Archaeology or archeology:
n. The scientific study of historic or prehistoric
peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions,
monuments, and other remains. – Webster’s
College Dictionary.

The value
of archaeology is that it can help to verify – or deny – the trustworthiness of
ancient historical documents.

In his
book, What Mean These Stones?, Millar Burrows
wrote,
“Archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the
reliability of the Scriptural record.More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible
increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine.”Burrows
wasdirector of the American School
of Oriental Research in Jerusalem at the time the
Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

The
following is a compilation of biographies of archaeologists and associated
scholars, who through their research, have become convinced of the veracity of
the ancient documents collectively called the Bible.Among them are former critics -- William F.
Albright, Nelson Glueck, George Ernest Wright, Sir
William Ramsay, A. H. Sayce, and Dr. Clifford Wilson
– whose views changed as they examined, first-hand, the archaeological
evidence.

William F. Albright.“Retrospect
and Prospect in New Testament Archaeology,” in The Teacher’s Yoke, ed. By E. Jerry Vardaman (Waco, Texas: Baylor University, 1964), p. 288ff.
Quoted by Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, When
Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences (Wheaton, IL: Victor,
1990), p. 202.“‘All radical schools in New Testament
criticism which have existed in the past or which exist today are
pre-archaeological, and are therefore, since they were built in DerLuft [in the air], quite
antiquated today.’”

William F. Albright.Archaeology of Palestine, Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1960.p. 225.“The contents of
our Pentateuch are, in general, very much older than the date at which they were
finally edited; new discoveries continue to confirm the historical accuracy of
the literary antiquity of detail after detail in it.Even when it is necessary to assume later
additions to the original nucleus of Mosaic tradition, these additions reflect
the normal growth of ancient institutions and practices, or the effort made by
later scribes to save as much as possible of extant traditions about
Moses.It is, accordingly, sheer
hypercriticism to deny the substantially Mosaic character of the Pentateuchal tradition.”

William F. Albright.Christian Century, November 19, 1958, p.
1329.“The narratives
of the patriarchs, ofMoses and the
exodus, of the conquest of Canaan, of the judges, the monarchy, exile and
restoration, have all been confirmed and illustrated to an extent that I should
have thought impossible forty years ago.”

William F. Albright. Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, Baltimore:
JohnsHopkinsUniversity
Press, 1956, p. 176. “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the
substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition.”

William F. Albright.Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands, New York:
Funk and Wagnalls, 1955, p. 128.The Dead Sea Scrolls prove “conclusively
that we must treat the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible with the utmost
respect and that the free emending of difficult passages in which modern
critical scholars have indulged cannot be tolerated any longer.”

William F. Albright.From Stone Age to Christianity,
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Press, 1946, p. 23.“Thanks to the Qumran
discoveries, the new Testament proves to be in fact what it was formerly
believed to be: the teaching of Christ and his immediate followers between cir.
25 and cir. 80 A.D.”

William F. Albright. The
Archaeology of Palestine, rev. edition.Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1960,
pp.127, 128. “The
excessive scepticism shown toward the Bible by
important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively
discredited.Discovery after discovery
has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased
recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.”

William F. Albright, The
Archaeology of Palestine.Baltimore: Penquin Books, 1960, p. 229. “Biblical
Historical data are accurate to an extent far surpassing the ideas of any
modern critical students, who have consistently tended to err on the side of
hyper criticism.”

“Blaiklock produced a long series
of Bible-reading notes for the Scripture Union together with a number of books
on his favourite biblical theme, the historical
background of the New Testament; popularising but
never shallow and always based on sound scholarship, these gave him an
international reputation as a biblical scholar. In New Zealand at the same time he
came to be regarded as a champion of traditional Christian belief against the
inroads of liberal scholarship and doctrine.”

Awards: Litt.D., University
of Auckland, 1945, for The Male
Characters of Euripides: A Study in Realism;
officer, Order of the British Empire, 1974.

Author: The Christian
in Pagan Society, Tyndale, 1951. The SevenChurches, Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1951.The Male Characters of Euripides: A Study in
Realism, New ZealandUniversity Press, 1952. Out of the Earth: The
Witness of Archaeology to the New Testament, Eerdmans,
1957, 2nd edition, 1961. Faith Is the
Victory: Studies in the First Epistle of John, Eerdmans,
1959. Rome in the New Testament,
Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1959.The
Acts of the Apostles: An Historical Commentary, Eerdmans,
1959. The Century of
the New Testament, Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1962. (Contributor)
James D. Douglas, editor, New Bible
Dictionary, Tyndale, 1962. (Contributor) Pictorial Bible Dictionary, Zondervan, 1962. Our
Lord's Teaching on Prayer, Zondervan, 1964. From Prison in Rome: Letters to the Philippians and Philemon,
Zondervan, 1964. Ten
Pounds an Acre, A. H. & A. W. Reed,
1965. The Young Man Mark: Studies in Some
Aspects of Mark and His Gospel, Paternoster Press, 1965, published as In the Image of Peter, Moody, 1969. Cities of the New Testament,
Revell, 1965. (Under pseudonym Grammaticus) Hills of Home, Tri-Ocean, 1966.St. Luke, Eerdmans, 1966. (Contributor) Dictionary of Practical
Theology, Eerdmans, 1967. (Under pseudonym
Grammaticus) Green Shade, A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1968.The Way of Excellence: A New Translation and
Study of I Corinthians 13 and Romans 12, Pickering
& Inglis, 1968. St. Luke, Scripture Union, 1968.
(With son, David A. Blaiklock) Is It, or Isn't It?: Why We Believe in the Existence of God, Zondervan, 1968 (published in England as This Faith or That, Pickering & Inglis,
1969). Layman's Answer: An Examination of
the New Theology, Judson, 1968. (Editor and contributor) Pictorial Bible
Atlas, Zondervan, 1969. Word Pictures from the Bible, Pickering
& Inglis, 1969, Zondervan,
1971.

The Archaeology of the
New Testament, Zondervan, 1970, revised edition,
1975, revised and updated edition, Nelson, 1984. The Psalms of the Great Rebellion: An Imaginative Exposition of Psalms
3 to 6 and 23, Marshall,
Morgan & Scott, 1970. Romans,
Eerdmans, 1971. (Editor and contributor) Why I Am Still a Christian, Zondervan, 1971. The
Pastoral Epistles: A Study Guide to the Epistles of I and II Timothy and Titus,
Zondervan, 1972. (With D. A. Blaiklock)
Why Didn't They Tell Me?,Zondervan, 1972. Who
Was Jesus?,
Moody, 1974. The
Positive Power of Prayer, Regal Books, 1974.Blaiklock's One Volume Commentary on the
Bible, Revell, 1977.Letter
to Children of Light: A Bible Commentary for Laymen in 1, 2, 3 John, Regal
Books, 2nd edition, 1977. First
Peter, Word Books, 1977.Commentary
on the Psalms, Scripture Union, 1977, Volume I: Psalms for Living: Psalms 1-72, Volume II: Psalms for Worship: Psalms 73-150; The Answer's in the Bible, Hodder & Stoughton, 1978. Romans, Scripture Union, 1978.Luke,
Scripture Union, 1978. Meditations on the Psalms, four volumes, Scripture Union, 1979. Acts: The Birth of the Church, Revell, 1979. The
World of the New Testament, Arc Publishing, 1979, reprinted as: The Compact Handbook of New Testament Life,
Bethany House, 1989. Blaiklock's Handbook to the Bible, Revell, 1980,
reprinted as: Today's Handbook fo Bible Characters, Bethany
House, 1987. (Translator) Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ,
Thomas Nelson, 1980. Eight Days in Israel, Ark Press, 1980. Kathleen: A Record of Sorrow, Hodder
& Stoughton, 1980. Blaiklock's Book of Bible Persons, Ark Press, 1981.
(Translator) Thomas a Kempis,
Brother Lawrence, Thomas Nelson, 1982. (Translator) The Practice of the Presence of God: Based on the Conversations,
Letters, Ways, and Spiritual Principles of Brother Lawrence, as well as on the
Writings of Joseph de Beaufort, Thomas Nelson, 1982. The Confessions of Saint
Augustine: A New Translation with Introductions,
Thomas Nelson, 1983. (Editor with R. K. Harrison) The New International Dictionary of Biblical
Archaeology, Zondervan, 1983. (Translator
with C.C. Keys) The Little Flowers of
Saint Frances:
The Acts of Saint Francis and His Companions, Servant Books, 1985. Also author of monographs on classical and religious subjects; archaeological
editor of Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Zondervan.Columnist, under pseudonym Grammaticus,
in Auckland Weekly News, 1942--.Contributor of
editorials, articles, and reviews to classical journals in United States and United
Kingdom and to New Zealand newspapers.

“Near Eastern archaeology has demonstrated the historical
and geographical reliability of the Bible in many important areas. By
clarifying the objectivity and factual accuracy of biblical authors,
archaeology also helps correct the view that the Bible is avowedly partisan and
subjective. It is now known, for instance, that, along with the Hittites,
Hebrew scribes were the best historians in the entire ancient Near East,
despite contrary propaganda that emerged from Assyria, Egypt, and elsewhere.”

E. M. Blaiklock, Christianity
Today, September 28, 1973, p. 13.

“Recent archaeology has destroyed much nonsense and will
destroy more. And I use the word nonsense deliberately, for theories and
speculations find currency in biblical scholarship that would not be tolerated
for a moment in any other branch of literary or historical criticism.”

Author: Land
of Goshen, Biblical Illustrator 19, 93; The
Other Side of the Sea of Galilee, Biblical Illustrator, 20, 94; Standards of
Greatness in the First Century, Biblical Illustrator 21, 95; Coauthor,
Of Seals and Scrolls, Biblical
Illustrator 22, 96; Author, The Strange
Search for the Ashes of the Red Hefer, Biblical Archaeologist, 96; The Hill Country is Not Enough for Us:
Recent Archaeology and the Book of Joshua, Southwestern Journal of
Theology, 98; Jesus as Carpenter,
Biblical Illustrator, 98; Iron Age Loom
Weights from Timnah, Tell Batash (Timnah)
II: TheFinds from the Iron Age II, forthcoming.

F.F. Bruce.“Archaeological Confirmation of the New Testament,” Revelation and the Bible.Edited by Carl Henry.Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1969.“Where Luke has been suspected of inaccuracy, and accuracy
has been vindicated by some inscriptional evidence, it may be legitimate to say
archaeology has confirmed the New Testament record.”

F.F. Bruce.The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable?Downers
Grove, IL60515, Inter-Varsity Press, 1964. pp. 33, 44-46.“The earliest preachers of the gospel knew the value of …
first-hand testimony, and appealed to it time and again.‘We are witnesses of these things,’ was their
constant and confident assertion.And it
could have been by no means so easy as some writers seem to think to invent
words and deeds of Jesus in those early years, when so many of His disciples
were about, who could remember what had and had not happened.

“And it
was not only friendly eyewitnesses that the early preachers had to reckon with;
there were others less well disposed who were also conversant with the main
facts of the ministry and death of Jesus.The disciples could not afford to risk inaccuracies (not to speak of willful
manipulation of the facts), which would at once be exposed by those who would
be only too glad to do so.On the
contrary, one of the strong points in the original apostolic preaching is the
confident appeal to theknowledge of the
hearers; they not only said, ‘We are witnesses of these things,’ but also, ‘As
you yourselves also know’ (Acts 2:22).Had there been any tendency to depart from the facts in any material
respect, the possible present of hostile witnesses in the audience would have
served as a further corrective.”

Author:Founders of Great Religions,
Scribner, 1931. What Mean These Stones?, American Schools of Oriental
Research, 1941. Outline of Biblical Theology, Westminster, 1946.Palestine Is Our Business, Westminster, 1949. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Viking, 1955.More Light on the Dead Sea
Scrolls, Viking, 1958.Diligently Compared,
Thomas Nelson, 1964. (Contributor) Harry Thomas Frank
and William L. Reed, editors, Translating and Understanding the Old
Testament: Essays in Honor of Herbert Gordon May, Abingdon, 1970.
(Contributor) James L. Crenshaw and John T. Wiles, editors, Essays
in Old Testament Ethics, Ktav, 1974.Jesus in the First Three Gospels, Abingdon, 1977.Contributor to numerous journals in his field.

Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2005.

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p.
291.Cited in Josh McDowell, Evidence
that Demands a Verdict (Arrowhead Springs, CA: Campus Crusade for Christ,
1972) p. 66. “Archaeology
has in many cases refuted the views of modern critics. It has been shown in a
number of instances that these views rest on false assumptions and unreal,
artificial schemes of historical development....”

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p.
176. “The excessive
skepticism of many liberal theologians stems not from a careful evaluation of
the available data, but from an enormous predisposition against the
supernatural.”

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p. 1.
“On the
whole, however, archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence
in the reliability of the Scriptural record.More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the bible
increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine.”

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p.
42. “On the
whole such evidence as archaeology has afforded thus far, especially by
providing additional and older manuscripts of the books of the Bible,
strengthens our confidence in the accuracy with which the text has been
transmitted through the centuries.”

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p.
52. “Another result of comparing New Testament
Greek with the language of the papyri is an increase of confidence in the
accurate transmission of the text of the New Testament itself.”

Millar Burrows.What
Mean These Stones?New
York: Meridian Books, 1956, p.
2.The texts “have been transmitted with remarkable
fidelity, so that there need be no doubt whatever regarding the teaching
conveyed by them.”

Member:
Fellow IstitutoSlovacco; American
Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, America Association of Teachers
of Slavic and East European Languages, Czechoslovak Society for the Arts and Sciences,
New England Lutheran Historical Society (pres. 1990, editor Journal of New England, Lutheran Historical
Society 1995).

Co-author: Heritage of the Slavs, 1976; editor The Zion, 1995-, Slovo,
1998; Contributor of articles to professional journals.

“[American Institute of Holy Land
Studies] researcher Thomas Drobena cautioned that
where archaeology and the Bible seemed to be in tension, the issue is almost
always dating, the most shaky area in current
archaeology and the one at which scientific a priori and circular
reasoning often replace solid empirical analysis.”

Member: American Philosophical Society, American Schools of
Oriental Research, American Oriental Society, Archaeological Institute of
America, Israel Exploration Society, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Phi
Beta Kappa; Explorers Club and P.E.N. (both New York), Literary Club and University
Club (both Cincinnati), Cosmos Club (Washington, DC), Harvard Club (Boston).

Awards: Cincinnati
Fine Arts Award, 1940; Ohioana Career Medal, 1956; Ohana Book Award in nonfiction for Rivers in the Desert, 1960; selected to give benediction at
inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, 1961, Ohio Governor's Award, 1965.
Honorary degrees from University of Cincinnati, University of Pennsylvania,
Miami University (Oxford, OH), Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Jewish
Institute of Religion (now Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion), Dropsie College, Lincoln College (Lincoln, IL), Delaware
Valley College of Science and Agriculture, College of the Holy Cross, Kenyon
College, Drake University, Brandeis University, Wayne State University, and New
York University, 1936-65.

Author: DasWortHesedimalttestamentlichenSprachgebrauche, A. Topelmann,
1927, translation by Alfred Gottschalk, published as Hesed
in the Bible, Hebrew Union College Press, 1967.

The Other Side of the Jordan, AmericanSchools
of Oriental Research, 1940.The River Jordan,
Westminster,
1946. Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev,
Farrar, Straus, 1959. Deities and Dolphins: The Story of the Nabataeans, Farrar, Straus, 1965. Dateline: Jerusalem; A Diary, HebrewUnionCollege Press, 1968. Near
Eastern Archaeology in the Twentieth Century, Doubleday, 1970.
(Contributor) Hans Goedicke, editor, Near Eastern
Studies in Honor of William Foxwell Albright,
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.

Contributor of articles on archaeology and
Bible to books, encyclopedias, and magazines.

-- Melissa A. Dobson.Contemporary Authors Online,
Gale, 2005.

Nelson Glueck. “As a matter of
fact, however, it may be clearly stated categorically that no archaeological
discovery has ever controverted a single biblical
reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in
clear outline or exact details historical statements in the Bible.”Rivers in the Desert (New York: Farrar, Strausee and Cudahy, 1959), p. 136.Quoted by Norman L. Geisler and Ron Brooks,
When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences (Wheaton, IL:
Victor, 1990), p. 179.

Author:A
Theology of the Old Testament; Studies in the Book of Daniel; Studies in
Contemporary Hermeneutics; Commentary on Amos and Hosea; research on ancient Near Eastern and Israelite prophecy; studies
in apocalypticism.

Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2005.

Frederic Kenyon / Sir
Frederic George Kenyon

(1863-1952).British scholar and administrator,
assistant keeper of manuscripts in The British museum (1898-1909), Director of
the museum (1909-1930). Yusuf Ali, in his widely used
English translation of the Qur’an, twice cites Sir
Frederic Kenyon as a renowned authority.Abdullah Yusuf Ali, THE HOLY QUR’AN: Text, Translation and Commentary (Qatar: Qatar
National Printing Press, 1946), pp. 285, 287.

Author: The
Paleography of Greek Papyri; Our
Bible and Ancient Manuscripts; Handbook
to the Textual Criticism of The New Testament; The Bible and Archaeology.

Sir Frederic George Kenyon, The Story of the Bible, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1967, p. 113.“It is reassuring
at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries (of
manuscripts) and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity
of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial
integrity, the veritable Word of God.”

“It cannot be too strongly asserted that in
substance the text of the Bible is certain: Especially is this the case with
the New Testament, of early translations from it, and of quotations from it in
the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is practically certain
that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or
other of these ancient authorities.This
can be said of no other ancient book in the world.

“Scholars are satisfied that they possess
substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose
works have come down to us, of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil;
yet our knowledge of their writings depends on a mere handful of manuscripts,
whereas the manuscripts of the new Testament are counted by hundreds, and even
thousands.”

“The
Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or
hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without
essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries.”

Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology, New York: Harper &
Row, 1940, p. 279.“It is therefore legitimate to say that, in respect of
that part of the Old Testament against which the disintegrating criticism of
the last half of the nineteenth century was chiefly directed, the evidence of
archaeology has been to re-establish its authority, and likewise to augment its
value by rendering itmore intelligible
through a fuller knowledge of its background andsetting.Archaeology has not yet said its last word; but the results already
achieved confirm what faith would suggest, that the Bible can do nothing but
gain from an increase of knowledge.”

“This is at any
rate objective evidence, not resting on theological prepossessions, and since
it is accepted by all those who have had most experience in dating the gospel
itself must on all

grounds of probability be put back into the first century,
in order to allow time for the work to get into circulation; and a date toward
the end of that century is what Christian tradition has always assigned to it.

“With regard to the
other books of the New Testament there is not much to say. No one doubts that
the synoptic gospels belong to a period perceptibly earlier than the fourth
gospel, so that the traditional dates round about the fall of Jerusalem remain
approximately the latest possible, and the dating of Luke carries with it that
of Acts.

“ For the Pauline epistles the only new evidence
is that they were circulating as a collection by the end of the second century,
and that this collection included Hebrews, but apparently not the pastoral
epistles...

“The
interval than between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant
evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation
for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they
were written has now been removed.Both
the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament
may be regarded as finally established.”

Regarding the Chester Beatty Papyri (A.D. 200),
located in C. Beatty Museum in Dublin and part-owned by the University of
Michigan, containing papyrus codices, three of them containing major portions
of the New Testament, “The net result of this discovery – by far the most
important since the discovery of the Sinaiticus – is,
in fact, to reduce the gap between the earlier manuscripts and the traditional
dates of the New Testament books so far that it becomes negligible in any
discussion of their authenticity.No
other ancient book has anything like such early and plentiful testimony to its
text, and no unbiased scholar would deny that the text that has come down to us
is substantially sound.”

F. F. Bruce.“The Victoria Institute and the Bible.”http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1961/JASA3-61Bruce.html“Sir Frederic did not think of himself as a
Biblical scholar, but it is widely recognized that his contributions to
Biblical scholarship were of the highest value.

II. BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP AND CHRISTIAN ORIGINS

“Sir
Frederic Kenyon, in successive annual addresses which he delivered as our
president, emphasized the special opportunities presented to the Institute to
meet the need of the hour, provided that our work was characterized by “liberty
of investigation, an open mind, charity toward our opponents, and faith in the
victory of truth.” One particular way in which he thought the Institute might
well provide “the sound basis of scholarship” for carrying on the struggle
against anti-Christian forces was in making known the historical foundation of
the Christian faith. This is something which I should like to repeat and
underline.

“For Christianity is nothing if it
is not a historical faith-that is to say, a faith founded on things which have
really happened. Some Christian leaders have propounded outlines of ‘basic
Christianity’ which (they urge) men and women might well accept
and live by, even if (per impossibile) it
could be proved that Jesus of Nazareth had no historic existence. But such a
“basic Christianity” is a very different thing from the basic Christianity of
the apostles, which consisted in the affirmation that God had acted for the
redemption of mankind in the events of the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus of Nazareth. The beliefs and ethical principles of which modern “basic
Christianity” consists were certainly inculcated by the apostles, but the
apostles inculcated them as corollaries of the redeeming act of God in
Christ. And if we continue to use the term ‘Christianity’ in its historic sense
(as we should), then Christianity must rest upon the foundations of the
apostolic witness.”

Kenneth A. Kitchen

Archaeologist.Personal and Brunner
Professor Emeritus of Egyptology, School
of Archaeology, Classics and
Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool,
UK.

Research programme: (1)
Egyptology: producing the translations and commentaries for the texts published
in his earlier Rammesside Inscriptions, I-VII; work
in ancient Egyptian history (especially New Kingdom and Third Intermediate
Periods), foreign relations (with Near East and East Africa) and literature.
(2) Ancient Near East: major project on history, inscriptions and cultures of
ancient [pre-Islamic] Arabia, and in the Levant.
(3) Ancient Egypt, Near East and Hebrew Bible: historical, literary and
cultural background to the Hebrew Bible on an empirical, factual basis from its
Near Eastern environment.

Kitchen remarks that after “a fair and full investigation of the total
available resources, the verdict is frequently a high measure of agreement
between the Bible and the world that is its ancient and original context.”

Nowhere else in the whole of Ancient Near Eastern history
has the literary, religious and historical development of a nation been
subjected to such drastic and wholesale reconstructions at such variance with
the existing documentary evidence. The fact that Old
Testament scholars are habituated to these widely known reconstructions, even
mentally conditioned by them, does not alter the basic gravity of the situation
which should not be taken for granted.... [citing
Bright] “The
new evidence [i.e., objective Near Eastern data], far from
furnishing a corrective to inherited notions of the religions of earliest Israel tends to
be subsumed under the familiar developmental pattern’.... And the same applies
to other aspects besides history....”

Thus, “Biblical studies have long been hindered by the
persistence of long-outdated philosophical and literary theories (especially of
nineteenth-century stamp), and by wholly inadequate use of first-hand sources
in appreciating the earlier periods of the Old Testament story in particular.”

"The Aramaic of Daniel". Notes on Some Problems in the Book Of Daniel. London: The Tyndale Press, 1965. Pbk. pp.31-79.

Education: LoyolaUniversity of Los
Angeles, B.A., 1962; University
of Munich, Dr.Theological, 1968. Memberships: American Academy of
Religion, American Historical Association, American Society for the Study of
Religion, American Schools of Oriental Research, American Research Center in
Egypt, International Association for Coptic Studies, GesellschaftfuerGeistesgeschichte.

Contributor to books, including Vecchi
e Nuovi Dei, edited by R. Caporale,
Valentino (Turin), 1976; Jewish Tradition in the Diaspora: Studies in Memory
of Professor Walter J. Fischel, edited by M. M. Caspi, Berkeley Publishing, 1981; Religion and Politics
in the Modern World, edited by Peter Merkl and Ninian Smart, New York University Press, 1983; Newman
and the Modernists, edited by Mary Jo Weaver, University Press of America,
1985; and The Roots of Egyptian Christianity, edited by Birger Pearson and James Goehring,
Fortress, 1986. Contributor to various periodicals and journals, including Religious
and Theological Abstracts, Newman-Studien, Biblical Archaeologist, Metanoia:
An Interdisciplinary Review, Journal of the American Academy of Religion,
Religious Studies Review, GoettingerMiszellen, Downside Review, Loyola, and Journal of
Ecumenical Studies.Research on the history of
nineteenth-century religious thought in Germany; studying problems of Christian origins and Hellenistic
mystery religions; a study of the relationship of religion and political
ideologies; a biography of Merry del Val.

Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2005.

Jack P. Lewis / Jack
Pearl Lewis

(1919-). American
scholar.Minister,
serving in churches in Texas, Rhode Island, and Kentucky, 1941-54; Harding
Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, TN, associate professor, 1954-57,
professor of Bible, 1957-89. UniversityChristianCenter, Oxford, MS,
member of board of directors, 1966. Church of Christ, White
Station congregation, elder.

Jack P. Lewis has a reading knowledge of
German, French, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. He has led more than thirty
tours to the Holy Land. Since his retirement from Harding Graduate
School of Religion in 1989, he has given lectures, written, and served as elder
in his church. He has also served as the Honorary Dean of the JapaneseSchool
of Evangelism in Tokyo, Japan.Education:
AbileneChristianCollege (now University),
B.A., 1941; Sam Houston Teacher's College (now Sam Houston State University),
M.A., 1944; Harvard University, S.T.B., 1947, Ph.D., 1953; Hebrew Union
College, Ph.D., 1962.

Member: American Historical Association,
American Society for Reformation Research.Lutheran.Author: A Man Spoke, A
World Listened, 1963, Pontius Pilate,
1968, First Christmas, 1971, First Easter, 1973, First Christians, 1976, The
Flames of Rome, 1981, In the Fullness
of Time, 1991, A Skeleton in God's
Closet, 1994, More Than a Skeleton,
2003, The Da
Vinci Code -Fact or Fiction?, 2004; editor: The Best of Walter A. Maier, 1980; editor: Josephus-The Jewish War, 1982; editor, translator: Josephus-The Essential Writings, 1988, Josephus-The Essential Works, 1995, Eusebius-The Church History, 1999;
contributor of over 250 articles and reviews to professional journals.

“At the 2,000th anniversary of Christianity, then, we should
be ready to tell everyone that the sum total of the literary, historical and
archaeological evidence from the ancient world dramatically supports the New
Testament record on Jesus. Those who claim it does not are sadly misinformed,
tragically closed-minded, or dishonest.”

Author: New
Testament Introduction and Survey, 1961, Archaeology and the New Testament, 1991; editor: The Eternal Kingdom, 1961, Index to the Biblical Archaeologist, 1970, Cumulative Index to the BASOR, 1972.

“The general consensus of both liberal and conservative
scholars is that Luke is very accurate as a historian.He’s erudite, he’s eloquent, his Greek
approaches classical quality, he writes as an educated man, and archaeological
discoveries are showing over and over again that Luke is accurate in what he
has to say.”

“Archaeology has not produced anything that is
unequivocally a contradiction to the Bible.On the contrary, as we’ve seen, there have been many opinions of
skeptical scholars that have become codified into ‘fact’ over the years but
that archaeology has shown to be wrong.”

“Much of the credit
for this relatively new assessment of the patriarchal tradition must go to the
‘Albright school.’ Albright himself pointed out years ago that apart from ‘a
few diehards among older scholars’ there is hardly a single biblical historian
who is not at least impressed with the rapid accumulation of data supporting
the ‘substantial historicity’ of patriarchal tradition.”

“Those who expect
the [Dead Sea] scrolls to produce a radical
revision of the Bible have been disappointed, for these texts have only
verified the reliability and stability of the Old Testament as it appears in
our modern translations.”

J. Randall Price, Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Eugene, OR:
Harvest House, 1996p. 164; cf. p. 157. “The discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, then, has made a contribution toward confirming the integrity of the
biblical text and its own claim to predictive prophecy. Rather than support the
recent theories of documentary disunity, the Scrolls have returned scholars to
a time when the Bible’s internal witness to its own consistency and veracity
was fully accepted by its adherents.”

William Mitchell
Ramsay *** Not in Gale

(1851–1939). Classical scholar and
archaeologist and the foremost authority of his day on the topography,
antiquities, and history of Asia Minor in
ancient times. The value of his New Testament studies is enhanced by the
fact that he approached the subject, not as a theologian, but as a Roman
historian versed in the working of Roman institutions in the provinces and
possessing an intimate knowledge of the country which figured so prominently in
the early history of the Church.

“I may fairly claim
to have entered on this investigation without any prejudice in favour of the conclusion which I shall now attempt to
justify to the reader. On the contrary, I began with a mind unfavourable
to it, for the ingenuity and apparent completeness of the Tubingen theory had
at one time quite convinced me. It did not lie then in my line of life to
investigate the subject minutely; but more recently I found myself often
brought in contact with the book of Acts as an authority for the topography,
antiquities, and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne in upon me that
in various details the narrative showed marvellous
truth. In fact, beginning with the fixed idea that the work was essentially a
second-century composition, and never relying on its evidence as trustworthy
for first-century conditions. I gradually came to find it a useful ally in some
obscure and difficult investigations.”

p. 91; cf. William M. Ramsay, Luke the Physician, pp.
177-79, 222. “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his
statement of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense; he
fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules in the evolution of history, and
proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each incident. He
seizes the important and critical events and shows their true nature at greater
length, while he touches lightly or omits entirely much that was valueless for
his purpose. In short, this author should be placed along with the very
greatest of historians.”

Introduction, p. v: “My aim. . . is to show through
the examination, word by word and phrase by phrase, of a few passages which
have been exposed to hostile criticism, that the New Testament is unique in the
compactness, the lucidity, the pregnancy, and the vivid truthfulness of its
expression. That it is not the character of one or two only of the books that
compose the New Testament; it belongs in different ways to all alike.”

Page 262: “Wherever the present writer followed Luke’s authority absolutely, . . . he was right down to the last detail.”

“From Strauss to Schmiedel, what
a series of distinguished and famous scholars have blindly assumed that their
inability to estimate evidence correctly was the final and sure criterion of
truth.”

Page 259: “Such progress as the present writer has been enabled to
make in discovery is largely due to the early appreciation of the fact that
Luke is a safe guide.”

F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable? (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1971), pp. 90-91.“Sir William Ramsay,
who devoted many fruitful years to the archaeology of Asia Minor, testifies to
Luke's intimate and accurate acquaintance with Asia Minor
and the Greek East at the time with which his writings deal. When Ramsay first
set out on his archeological work, in the late 'seventies of last century, he
was firmly convinced of the truth of the then fashionable Tubingen
theory, that Acts was a late production of the middle of the second century AD,
and he was only gradually compelled to a complete reversal of his views by the
inescapable evidence of the facts uncovered in the course of his research.

“Although in his later years Ramsay was persuaded to don the
mantle of a popular apologist for the trustworthiness of the New Testament
records, the judgments which he publicized in this way were judgments which he
had previously formed as a scientific archaeologist and student of ancient
classical history and literature. He was not talking unadvisedly or playing to
the religious gallery when he expressed the view that 'Luke's history is
unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness”; this was the sober conclusion
to which his researches led him, in spite of the fact that he started with a
very different opinion of Luke's historical credit.”

Anderson, J.G.C. “RAMSAY, Sir WILLIAM MITCHELL”. The Dictionary of National Biography,
1931 - 1940. London: OxfordUniversity
Press, 1949.http://www.webminister.com/ramsay/rbi001.shtml.“His
basic contention, supported by a wealth of argument, that St. Luke is a
first-class historian of the first century A.D., has won wide acceptance,
although the statements in the passage dating the birth of Christ (ii. 1-2)
present problems which still elude a favourable
solution. Another thesis which Ramsay firmly established is that the Galatians
to whomSt. Paul
addressed his Epistle were those, not of Galatia proper, but of the southern
part of the Roman province. The value of his New Testament studies is enhanced
by the fact that he approached the subject, not as a theologian, but as a Roman
historian versed in the working of Roman institutions in the provinces and
possessing an intimate knowledge of the country which figured so prominently in
the early history of the Church.”

Gasque, W. Ward.“AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN AND
HIS WORK” in Sir William M. Ramsay; Archaeologist and New Testament Scholar.Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1966.

(1845-1933).
English philologist.Authority on Near Eastern languages;
tutor (1870-90), Professor (1891-1919) at Oxford.
Author of Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes (1872), Introduction
to the Science of Language (1879), The Monuments of the Hittites
(1881), The Early History of the Hebrews (1897), Early Israel and the
Surrounding Nations (1898), The Archaeology of the Cuneiform
Inscriptions (1907), Reminiscences (1923), etc.

“The mention of "the
kings of the Hittites" in the account of the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2 Kings 7:6) was
declared to be an error or an invention; but it was only the ignorance of the
critic himself that was at fault.”

“Time after time the most positive assertions of a
skeptical criticism have been disproved by archaeological discovery, events and
personages that were confidently pronounced to be mythical have been shown to
be historical, and the older [i.e., biblical] writers have turned out to have
been better acquainted with what they were describing than the modern critics
who has flouted them.”

Keith Schoville
*** Not in Gale

Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Semitic studies at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Bible
Review's Hebrew for Bible Readers column, Schovillewrote
Biblical Archaeology in Focus (Baker, 1979).

Archaeological research has established the identity of
literally hundreds of places—in Mesopotamia, Persia, ancient Canaan, and
Egypt—that are mentioned in the Bible. Furthermore, the discovery of thousands
of historical texts in Egypt
and Mesopotamia has enabled scholars to work
out the historical chronology of the ancient world in considerable detail.
Historical synchronisms have been established for dating the accession of
Solomon (ca. 961 b.c.), the
accession of Jehu, the Israelite king (842/1 B.C.),
the fall of Samaria (722/1 B.C.), and the first
capture of Jerusalem
(March 15/16, 579 b.c.).

Keith N. Schoville, Professor
Emeritus of Hebrew and Seminaryitic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.“Top Ten Archaeological
Discoveries of the Twentieth Century Relating to the Biblical World,” http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm.This article was published in Stone
Campbell Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, and is published with the kind permission
of Dr. William Baker, editor of the Stone Campbell Journal, and Dr. Schoville, the author.

A. N. Sherwin-White /
Adrian Nicholas Sherwin-White

(1911-1993).A. N. Sherwin-White, who was educated at Oxford University, served
as an instructor at that institution for more than thirty years. A scholar of
Roman history, the educator and author put forth the notion that the Roman Empire benefited by granting equal rights to its
conquered peoples. Although the Romans believed other nations to be culturally
inferior, they offered citizenship to those willing to adopt Roman culture.
Sherwin-White developed his historical theories in the books The Roman
Citizenship--which won the Conington Prize and is
considered a definitive text on the subject--and Racial Prejudice in
Imperial Rome.

A. N. Sherwin-White.Roman Society and Roman Law in the New
Testament,Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1963, p. 189.“For Acts the confirmation of historicity is
overwhelming.... Any attempt to reject its basic historicity must now appear
absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.”Cited in Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, When
Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences (Wheaton, IL: Victor,
1990), p. 202.

Awards: Best Book of the Year Award,
Catholic Press Association/Associated Church Press, 1975, for The Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia.Resurrection Realities,
Bible House of Los Angeles, 1945, published as The Vital Heart of
Christianity,Zondervan, 1964. John: The
Gospel of Belief,Eerdmans, 1948. Galatians:
The Charter of Christian Liberty,Eerdmans, 1950,
revised edition, 1960. The Genius of the Gospels,Eerdmans, 1951.The New Testament: An Historical and Analytic Survey,Eerdmans,
1954, published as New Testament Survey, 1961, revised edition published
by Eerdmans, 1985. Philippians: The Gospel at
Work,Eerdmans, 1956. Interpreting
Revelation,Eerdmans, 1957. (Editor) The Word for This Century,OxfordUniversity
Press, 1960.Proclaiming the New Testament:
Revelation, Baker Book, 1963. (Editor) The Pictorial Bible
Dictionary,Zondervan, 1963. The
Reality of the Resurrection, Harper, 1963.New
Testament Times,Eerdmans, 1965. (Editor) Handy
Dictionary of the Bible,Zondervan, 1965,
published in England
as Lakeland Bible Dictionary,Oliphants, 1966.
(Editor) The Bible: The Living Word of Revelation,Zondervan,
1968. (Editor with Richard N. Longnecker) New Dimensions in New Testament Study,Zondervan,
1974. (Editor) The Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia,Zondervan, 1975. Roads a Christian Must Travel,Tyndale, 1979. Who's Boss?,
Victor Press, 1980. (Contributor) Expositors Bible Commentary,Zondervan, 1981. (Editor with James I.
Packer and William White, Jr.)The World of the New
Testament, T. Nelson (Nashville,
TN), 1982. (Editor with
Packer and White) The World of the Old Testament, T.
Nelson, 1982. (Editor with Packer and White) All
the People and Places of the Bible, T. Nelson, 1982. (Editor with
Packer and White) Daily Life in Bible Times, T.
Nelson, 1982. (Editor with Packer and White) The
Land of the Bible, T. Nelson, 1985. (Editor with Packer and White) Public Life in Bible Times, T. Nelson, 1985. (General
editor) The New International
Dictionary of the Bible, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan
Pub. House (Grand Rapids,
MI), 1987. (With J. D. Douglas) NIV Compact Dictionary of the Bible, Regency Reference
Library, 1989. (Editor with Packer and White) Everyday Life in the
Bible: The Old and New Testaments, Bonanza Books (New York City), 1989. (Editor with Packer and
White) Nelson's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts,
T. Nelson, 1995. (Editor with Packer) Illustrated
Manners and Customs of the Bible, T. Nelson, 1997.Contributor of apostle biographies to World Book;
contributor of articles to religious journals.

Merrill C. Tenney, “Historical
Verities in the Gospel of Luke,” in Roy B. Zuck (gen.
ed.,), Vital Apologetic Issues: Examining Reasons and Revelation in Biblical
Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1995), p.
204.Tenney points
out about Luke’s writings, “The two volumes he wrote comprise at least one-fourth of
the total canon of the New Testament and provide the only piece of continuous
historical writing that covers the period from the birth of Jesus of Nazareth to the establishment of a church in the capitol
of the Roman Empire.”

J. A. Thompson / John
Arthur Thompson

(1913-2002).Scholar, minister, teacher.

“The Rev Dr John Thompson, MSc,
BA, BEd, BD, PhD (Cantab),
has died peacefully in Melbourne
at the age of 89.He had significant
achievements in several fields: teaching science in a Brisbane
secondary school; pioneering Christian work in schools and universities;
promoting biblical archaeology; contributing to Bible translation; lecturing in
Old Testament studies at the Baptist Theological College of NSW and in Middle
Eastern studies at the University
of Melbourne. Through it
all he was sustained by a strong and simple faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.”

“Finally, it is perfectly true to say that biblical
archaeology has done a great deal to correct the impression that was abroad at
the close of the last century and in the early part of this century, that
biblical history was of doubtful trustworthiness in many places. If one
impression stands out more clearly than any other today, it is that on all
hands the over-all historicity of the Old Testament tradition is admitted. In
this connection the words of W. E Albright may be quoted: “There can be no
doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old
Testament traditions.”

“It is widely agreed today that in this book [Acts] we can
see the hand of a historian of the first rank.... Luke is shown to be a most
careful recorder of information, whether it be matters of geography and
political boundaries, local customs, titles of local officers, local religious
practices, details of local topography, or the disposition of buildings in
Greek or Roman, Asian or European towns.”

(1898-1975).A leading authority on Mayan
civilization, Thompson conducted excavations in British Honduras and at ChichenItza. He was a member of the
British Museum Expedition to British Honduras
in 1927. He succeeded in deciphering Mayan hieroglyphic writing and calculating
correlations between Mayan and Christian
calendars, enabling scholars to place events from Mayan history in the larger
perspective of world history.Chicago Natural History
Museum, Chicago, IL, assistant curator in charge of Central and South American
archaeology and ethnology, 1926-35, honorary curator of Middle American
archaeology, 1945-75; Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, member of
archaeological staff, 1935-58; Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, member
of faculty of archaeology and anthropology, 1958-75. Honorary
professor at MuseoNacional
de Mexico, beginning 1941; professor at Seminario
Maya, University
of Mexico, 1960.President of Thirty-Second International Congress of Americanists, 1952; consejero,
Centro de Investigacionesantropologicasmexicanas, 1953-75.

Education: Educated at CambridgeUniversity.
Military/Wartime Service: Served with Coldstream
Guards, 1918; became second lieutenant.

A Correlation of the Mayan and European
Calendars, FieldMuseum of Natural
History, 1927.

The Civilization of the Mayas,
Field Museum of Natural History, 1927, 6th edition, ChicagoNaturalHistoryMuseum,
1958.Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and
Central British Honduras, FieldMuseum of Natural
History, 1930.Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Cayo District, British Honduras, Field Museum of Natural
History, 1931. The Solar Year of the Mayas at Quirigua,
Guatemala, Field Museum of Natural History, 1932, reprinted, Kraus Reprint,
1968.

(With Harry E. D. Pollock and Jean Charlot)
A Preliminary Study of the Ruins of Coba,
Quintana Roo, Mexico, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1932.Mexico
before Cortez: An Account of the Daily Life, Religion, and Ritual of the Aztecs
and Kindred Peoples, Scribner, 1933. Archaeology of
South America, FieldMuseum of Natural
History, 1936.Excavations at San
Jose, British Honduras, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1939.Dating of Certain Inscriptions of Non-Maya Origin, [Cambridge, Mass.],
1941. A Coordination of the History of ChichenItza with
Ceramic Sequences in Central Mexico, [Mexico], 1941.Pitfalls
and Stimuli in the Interpretation of History through Loan Words, Middle
American Research Institute, Tulane University, 1943. Maya Hieroglyphic
Writing: An Introduction, Carnegie Institution of
Washington, 1950, 3rd edition, University
of Oklahoma Press, 1971. The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization, University of Oklahoma
Press, 1954, 2nd edition, 1973.Memoranda on Some Dates at Palenque, Chiapas,
Carnegie Institution of Washington,
1954. (With others) Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico,
Carnegie Institution of Washington,
1955.Dieties Portrayed on Censers
at Mayapan, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1957.

Merrill F. Unger.Archaeology and the Old
Testament.Chicago: Moody Press, 1984, p. 15. “Old Testament
archaeology has rediscovered whole nations, resurrected important peoples, and
in a most astonishing manner filled in historical gaps, adding immeasurably to
the knowledge of biblical backgrounds.”

Merrill F. Unger.Archaeology and the Old
Testament.Chicago: Moody Press, 1984, pp. 25-26. “The role which
archaeology is performing in New Testament research (as well as that of the Old
Testament) in expediting scientific study, balancing critical theory,
illustrating, elucidating, supplementing and authenticating historical and
cultural backgrounds, constitutes the one bright spot in the future of
criticism of the Sacred text.”

Author: The
Tabula of Cebes, 1983, Building God's House in the Roman World,
1990, The Domus
Ecclesiae in its Environment, 1992, co-author: The Times Concise Atlas of the Bible, 1991; editor: Social Networks of Early Christianity in the Roman
World, 1991; series editor: Archaeologicaland Biblical Studies; book rev.
editor: The Second Century journal;
member editorial board Biblical Archaeologist;
contributor of articles to professional publications.

Also author of Crash Goes the Exorcist,
1974; Gods in Chariots and Other Fantasies, 1975, and The Passover
Plot--Exposed, 1977.Author of more than twenty
audiovisual tapes on biblical subjects, archaeology, and unidentified flying
objects.Contributor to Bible and Spade.

Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2002.

Ankerberg and Weldon write, “As
part of his secular academic duties, Dr. Clifford Wilson was for some years
required to research and teach higher critical approaches to the Bible. This
gave him a great deal of firsthand exposure and insight to the assumptions and
methodologies that go into these approaches. Yet his own
archaeological research was found to continually refute such skeptical theories
…”

I was not always the “literalist” I am today. I’ve always
had a profound respect for the Bible, but accepted that the use of poetic forms
meant that the record could often be interpreted symbolically where now I take
it literally—though of course there are times when symbolism is clearly
utilized. Thus in later Scriptures “Egypt” can be a geographic country
or a symbolic term.

That liberalism is especially true in relation to Genesis
chapters 1 through 11, often considered allegorical or mythical, where my
researches have led me to the conclusion that this is profound writing, meant
to be taken literally. There was a real Adam, creation that was contemporaneous
for the various life forms as shown in Genesis chapter 1, and a consistent
style of history writing—such as the outlines given in Genesis one, then
zeroing in on the specifics relating to mankind in Genesis chapter 2; the
history of all the early peoples in Genesis chapter 10, then the concentration
on Abraham and his descendants from Genesis chapter 11 onwards. Early man, “the
birth of the lady of the rib,” long-living man, giants in the earth (animals,
birds, and men), the flood, the Tower of Babel—and much more—point to factual,
accurate recording of history in these early chapters of Genesis.

Over 40 years have passed since I first became
professionally involved in biblical archaeology and my commitment to the Bible
as the world’s greatest history book is firmly settled. As Psalm 119:89 states,
“Forever O Lord, your word is established in heaven.”

Dr. Clifford Wilson.Archaeology—the Bible
and Christ, a 17-volume survey which brings together over 5,000 facts
relating archaeology to the Bible. Published by PacificChristianMinistries,
P. Box 311,
Lilydale 3140, Victoria, Australia.

“Archaeology is highly relevant
for Bible studies, consistently demonstrating that the Bible is the world’s
most accurate history text-book.... This present volume (and each of the other
volumes) takes its place in offering significant evidence to show how
archaeology illustrates, explains and verifies the integrity and authenticity
of God’s own Word of Truth.”

“There are other evidences of eyewitness recording by
Daniel. That he knew Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon (Daniel 4:30) is a problem by those
who argue for a later date for Daniel. This fact of history was recovered by
excavation only in modern times, yet Daniel had recorded it correctly. One
critic wrote that this was a difficulty; the answer to which “we shall
presumably never know”.... Linguistic pointers from the Dead
Sea Scrolls (e.g., a recent targum
of Job) also suggest an early, not a late, date for Daniel.... The overthrow of
the nonhistorical view of the Exile and the return of
the Jews came with the finding of the famous Cyrus Cylinder.... By this decree
[of King Cyrus] the Hebrew people were given leave to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.... The same
can be said about the style of writing in the Book of Ezra, for as Albright
says; “If we turn to the Book of Ezra, recent discoveries have indicated the
authenticity of its official documents in the most striking way.” Albright
shows that the language of Ezra had been seriously challenged, but that some of
the very words that have been challenged have turned up in Egyptian, Aramaic,
and Babylonian cuneiform documents that date to the exact time of Ezra. Albright
goes on: “If it were practicable to quote from still unpublished Aramaic
documents from fifth century Egypt, the weight of factual evidence would crush
all opposition”.... Still another convincing evidence of the genuineness of the
Bible records is in The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings by Edwin
R. Thiele. Where once it seemed that the dates of the kings in the
divided-kingdom period were inaccurate and vague, he has been able to show
remarkable synchronisms.... Once again, an area that many believed was total
confusion has been shown to be staggeringly accurate recording, with fine
chronological interweaving that cannot be claimed for any other book of ancient
history.”

“The serious investigator has
every reason for great confidence in the reliability of both Old and New
Testament Scriptures.... However, the historical material—seen through
archaeology to be of remarkable integrity—is penned by the same men who
witnessed and recorded the miracles and elaborated on spiritual realities. It
is reasonable to believe that they would be as reliable in those areas as they
are in the areas now subject to investigation by archaeology.

“It is remarkable that where
confirmation is possible and has come to light, the Bible stands investigation
in ways that are unique in all literature. Its superiority to attack, its
capacity to withstand criticism, its amazing facility to be proved right after
all, are all staggering by any standards of scholarship. Seemingly assured
results “disproving” the Bible have a habit of backfiring. Over and over again
the Bible has been vindicated. That is true from Genesis to Revelation, as we
have seen in this book.”

Clifford Wilson, Rocks,
Relics, and Biblical Reliability (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan/Richardson,
TX: Probe, 1977), p. 120. “Those who know
the facts now recognize that the New Testament must be accepted as a remarkably
accurate source book.…”

General editor of “Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.” Inter-Varsity
Press, beginning 1964.Contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Contributor of more than a
hundred articles to academic journals. Editor of Iraq,
1953-78; co-editor of ReallexionderAssyriologie, beginning 1959.

Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2005.

Edwin Yamauchi, The Stones
and the Scriptures (New York: J. B. Lippencott,
1972), p. 186, quoting Dr. Wiseman:“When due
allowance has been paid to the increasing number of supposed errors which have
been subsequently eliminated by the discovery of archaeological evidence, to
the many aspects of history indirectly affirmed or in some instances directly
confirmed by extra-biblical sources, I would still maintain that the historical
facts of the Bible, rightly understood, find agreement in the facts culled from
archaeology, equally rightly understood, that is, the majority of errors can be
ascribed to errors of interpretation by modern scholars and not to
substantiated “errors” of fact presented by the biblical historians. This view
is further strengthened when it is remembered how many theories and
interpretations of Scripture have been checked or corrected by archaeological
discoveries.”

Awards: National Endowment for the
Humanities fellow, 1968; American Institute of Holy Land Studies research
fellow, 1968; American Philosophical Society grant for research in England,
1970; Institute for Advanced Christian Studies fellow, 1974-75.

Author: Composition
and Corroboration in Classical and Biblical Studies, Presbyterian
& Reformed, 1966. Greece
and Babylon: Early Contacts between the Aegean
and the Near East, Baker Book, 1967. Mandaic
Incantation Texts, American Oriental Society, 1967.Gnostic Ethics and Mandaean Origins,HarvardUniversity Press, 1970.The
Stones and the Scriptures,Lippincott, 1972,
revised edition, Inter-Varsity Press, 1973. Pre-Christian
Gnosticism,Eerdmans, 1973, 2nd edition, Baker
Book, 1983. (With D. J. Wiseman) Archaeology and
the Bible,Zondervan, 1979.The
Archaeology of New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor,
Baker Book, 1980, published as New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor,
1987. The Scriptures and Archaeology, Western Conservative Baptist
Seminary, 1980. The World of the First Christians, Lion, 1981, published
as Harper's World of the New Testament, Harper, 1981. Foes
from the Northern Frontier, Baker Book, 1982. (Editor with Jerry Vardaman and contributor) Chronos,
Kairos, Christos,Eisenbrauns, 1989. Persia and the Bible,
Baker Book, 1990. (With Robert G. Clouse and Richard V. Pierard)
Two Kingdoms: The Church and Culture through the Ages, Moody Press (Chicago, IL),
1993. (Editor with Alfred J. Hoerth and Gerald L.
Mattingly) Peoples of the Old Testament World,
foreword by Alan R. Millard, Baker Books (Grand
Rapids, MI), 1994.
(Editor) Africa and Africans in Antiquity,MichiganStateUniversity
Press (East Lansing, MI), 2001.

Contributor of chapters to books, including New
Perspectives on the Old Testament, edited by Payne, Word Books, 1970; The
New Testament Student and His Field, edited by Skilton
and Ladley, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1982; and The
Miracles of Jesus, edited by Wenham and Blomberg,
JSOT Press, 1986. Contributor to dictionaries and encyclopedias, including Biblical
World: A Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, New Illustrated Bible Encyclopaedia, Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible,
Dictionary of Christian Ethics, Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, Handbook of
Christian History, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Interpreter's
Dictionary of the Bible (Supplementary Volume), Expositor's Bible
Commentary, The World's Religions, New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Great
Leaders of the Christian Church, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Layman's
Bible Dictionary, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, The Anchor Bible
Dictionary, and International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, and to
festschrifts and journals. Christianity Today, editor-at-large, 1972-80,
senior editor, 1992--; consulting editor in history, Journal of the American
Scientific Affiliation; member of editorial boards, Fides et Historia, Bulletin for Biblical Research, and Perspectives
on Science and Christian Faith; member of editorial committee, Journal
of the Evangelical Theological Society.

“There are a number of striking cases where specific
passages have been doubted (it is a rare passage that has not be questioned by
some critic) and have been directly confirmed. There are many more items and
areas which have afforded a general illumination of biblical backgrounds,
making the narratives more credible and understandable.”

“One of the striking characteristics of the scholars who
have approached the Bible primarily through literary analysis [e.g., the
documentary hypothesis] is the non-use or at best the grudging use they have
made of archaeological evidence.

“A few scholars who had accepted the views of higher
criticism, such as A. H. Sayce, revised their
positions because of the impact of the early archaeological discoveries, but
most higher critics chose not to make use of the new data.”

“In The Antiquities
[Josephus] describes how a high priest named Ananias
took advantage of the death of the Roman governor Festus – who is also
mentioned in the New Testament – in order to have James killed.He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and
brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the
Christ, and certain others.He accused
them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.I know of no scholar who has successfully
disputed this passage.L.H. Feldman
noted that if this had been a later Christian addition to the text, it would
have likely been more laudatory of James.So here you have a reference to the brother
of Jesus – who had apparently been converted by the appearance of the risen
Christ, if you compare John 7:5 and 1 Corinthians 15:7 – and corroboration of
the fact that some people considered Jesus to be the Christ, which means ‘the
Anointed One’ or ‘Messiah.’.”

...”The fact is that we have better historical
documentation for Jesus than for the founder of any other ancient
religion.For example, although the Gathas of Zoroaster, about 1000 B.C., are believed to be
authentic, most of the Zoroastrian scriptures were not put into writing until
after the third century A.D.The most
popular Parsi biography of Zoroaster was written in
A.D. 1278.The scriptures of Buddha, who
lived in the sixth century B.C., were not put into writing until after the
Christian era, and the first biography of Buddha was written in the first
century A.D.Although we have the
sayings of Muhammad, who lived from A.D. 570 to 632, in the Koran, his
biography was not written until 767—more than a full century after his death.

Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House,
1998), quoting Edwin Yamauchi, p. 90.“For me, the historical evidence has
reinforced my commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God who loves us and
died for us and was raised from the dead.It’s that simple.”

Sources:Dictionary of New
Zealand and the online GaleBiographyResourceCenter,
which include Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary,Encyclopedia of World Biography, Notable Women Scientists,
Contemporary Black Biography, Explorers and Discoverers of the World,
Marquis Who’s WhoTM and Contemporary
Authors Online.

Appendix 1

Skeptics who dismiss the credentials of Christian
archaeologists cannot do so without violating the genetic fallacy,
or the circumstantial ad hominem.What
follows is a listing of online websites dedicated to archaeology and the Bible.

Bible Believers
Archaeology - A Bible History Web Book

A Bible archaeology web book covering the
historical Jesus and biblical archaeology.

The focus at Bible History Online
is history and the Bible. The Bible is about God's activities in history. It
deals with actual people in an actual geographical area during actual specified
historical times who had contact with other actual peoples and empires whom we
know of from sources outside the Bible. Knowledge of the historical background
of the Bible is essential to any serious student of the Scriptures.

Recent archaeological discoveries
as well as comparative historical research and philological studies, along with
an analysis and interpretation of the Old Testament text have made possible a
fuller and more reliable picture of Biblical history than in previous eras. The
Lord has allowed our studies of the Bible to be greatly enhanced with the
tremendous technology of the computer and the Internet bringing the pictures of
the past as well as the work of devoted teachers and scholars right into our
homes.

Our Mission: The Bible Archaeology,Search Exploration BASE Institute is
dedicated to the quest for archaeological evidence to help validate to the
world that the Bible is true, and that it represents an accurate, non-fictional
account of God’s will to bring the people of this world back into relationship
with Him.

BASE Institute fulfills its mission by engaging in
activities of research, exploration & public education, to present credible
archaeological information that is sound in scholarship, but also interesting
and motivational to the general public.

Is the Bible Reliable? Biblelands
tours the people, places, things and topics of the Bible. From Egypt to Rome,
our 360 degree, interactive IPIX pictures allow you to see the Pyramids, Walk
Where Walked and Discover the mystery of Petra
all from the comfort of your home or office.

Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John
Weldon.“Archaeology and the Biblical Record”
The authors list several instances where archaeology has confirmed the accuracy
of both the Old and New Testaments. HTMLPDF

Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Archaeology and the Biblical Record - Part 1”
Biblical archaeology is fascinating both for what it studies (the Bible and
ancient remains) and the results (how these fit together in the belief system
of Christians). How does archaeology provide evidence for the reliability of
the Bible? HTMLPDF

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Archaeology and the Biblical Record - Part 2”
Drs. Ankerberg and Weldon explain that, while it is
unfeasible for archaeology to prove everything in the Bible, nevertheless, it
is an important step in shedding light on biblical content. HTMLPDF

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Archaeology and the Biblical Record - Part 3”
The authors explain that carelessness and bias on the part of the archaeologist
can negatively impact the conclusions drawn from a site. Regardless, they say,
even with all the problems that can occur, archaeology has repeatedly confirmed
the accuracy of the biblical record! HTMLPDF

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Biblical Archaeology—Silencing the Critics -
Part 1”
Even liberal theologians, secular academics and critics generally cannot deny
that archaeology has confirmed the biblical record at many points. The authors
illustrate with stories of three 20th century archeologists who had their
liberal training modified by their own archaeological work. HTMLPDF

“...Probably the three greatest
American archaeologists of the twentieth century each had their liberal
training modified by their archaeological work. W. F. Albright, Nelson Glueck, and George Ernest Wright all “received training in the liberal
scholarship of the day, which had resulted from the earlier and continuing
critical study of the Bible, predominantly by German scholars.”[Keith N. Scoville, Biblical Archeology in
Focus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1978), p. 163.]

Albright said of himself, “I must admit
that I tried to be rational and empirical in my approach [but] we all have
presuppositions of a philosophical order.”The
same statement could be applied as easily to Gleuck
and Wright, for all three were deeply imbued with the theological perceptions
which infused their work. Albright, the son of a Methodist missionary, came to
see that much of German critical thought was established upon a philosophical
base that could not be sustained in the light of archaeological discoveries....
Nelson Glueck was Albright’s student. In his own
explorations in Trans-Jordan and the Negev and
in his excavations, Glueck worked with the Bible in
hand. He trusted what he called “the remarkable phenomenon of historical memory in the
Bible.” He was the president of the prestigious Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion and an ordained Rabbi. Wright went from
the faculty of the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago
to a position in the HarvardDivinitySchool
which he retained until his death. He, too, was a student of Albright. [Ibid., p. 163.]

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Biblical Archaeology—Silencing the Critics -
Part 2”
Critics have a problem: any time archaeology does not directly confirm something
the Bible teaches, the tendency is to allege an error in the text. On the other
hand, liberal critics frequently tend to avoid the use of archaeology where it
confirms the Bible! This type of bias, the authors say, seems evident to
everyone—except those doing it. HTMLPDF

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Biblical Archaeology—Silencing the Critics -
Part 3”
What role does politics play in the interpretation of archaeological data? The
authors illustrate the problems, as seen in the finds at Ebla. HTMLPDF

Dr.
John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon.“Biblical Archaeology—Silencing the Critics -
Part 4”
There are a number of striking cases where the Bible has been directly
confirmed by archaeology. In this article the authors list 25 examples as they
conclude their look at “biblical” archaeology. HTMLPDF